Road (Trip) Warrior

...Traveling Wisdom

From Yorktown & Williamsburg. Beautiful weather, beautiful flowers, and George!

The Epic Road Trip, part 2: Happy to Share

To follow up from the last letter, I love to plan trips and also love to share what I’ve learned. Let’s go!

This trip went from LA-MS-TN-VA-NC-AL-LA, 2500 miles. Eight stops, longest was 4 nights, shortest 1 night. Lodging consisted of Air BNB (2), Bed & Breakfast, friends’ home, 3 Marriot Hotels, and a theme park resort property.

Profile: We are 2 empty-nesters, traveling in a Honda CR-V, without our dog. Steve does all the driving and I sit in the passenger seat and knit, load up the music/audio books/podcasts, find restaurants along the way, and offer navigational and other assistance upon request.

Packing: In addition to our suitcases (1 large, not giant, per person), we each brought a small tote bag to bring into hotels so we didn’t have to lug our full suitcases for just 1 night. Then there is my tote bag dedicated to all my hair products, makeup, and behemoth of a blow dryer. (Just being honest!)

Preparedness: No, we were never far from civilization, but we had the room to pack some “just in case items” so we did: Basic first aid kit and emergency medicines, tool box, Air BNB items (TP, paper towels, laundry soap, dish soap, zip loc bags, trash bags), our Aeropress coffee maker and coffee (neither of us like Keurig). On the advice of some wise friends, not every Air BNB is equally equipped and it pays to anticipate what you don’t want to be without.

Meals to Go: We have a snack bag for the car (and if you’ve ever watched The Middle, no it wasn’t blue and no we never forgot it!), a small cooler and frozen packs (cold drinks, milk, OJ, fruit), cereal, protein bars, and protein drinks. We always ate breakfast in our lodging because we’d rather spend our restaurant dollars at dinner. We brought a separate bag with wine, wine glasses, and corkscrew. MVP: our thermal coffee mugs (13 years old!) that keep coffee hot for HOURS. Zojirushi

(Yes, I’m a bag lady. I like identifiable containers for things and it helped to keep the car organized. Book bag, knitting bag, gift bag, snack bag, trash bag… You get the idea!)

Electronics: phone charging cords and wall blocks, 2 nightlights, and a white noise machine.

Hiking MVP: Poles. If you are, ahem, of a certain age, these things are amazing and wonderful. Mud? No problem. Uneven ground? Balance achieved. Want to take a little stress off those knees? Just bring the poles.

Surprise MVP, clothing division: I threw in a comfy sweatshirt (merino, stylish, not sloppy) at the last minute and was so thankful! The mountain temps, especially on the rainy day, were not like my hot, humid Louisiana. I threw on the sweatshirt over a wool t-shirt and was just fine!

Entertainment: We don’t play the alphabet game any more, but it’s still fun to add some pizazz to the trip. We leaned into our American Revolution theme and listened to podcasts (History That Doesn’t Suck) as well as an audiobook of 1776.This wasn’t our favorite so lesson learned: find a back-up! For music, it was Dolly Parton on the way to Pigeon Forge and Mountain Dulcimer along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I do love a good playlist! I packed a card game (not used) and a bag of books which was nice to have on that rainy morning in the cabin.

Lodging – lesson learned: Ask the Air BNB hosts if there are STAIRS in the house. You would think this would be obvious or at least mentioned. Nope. Thankfully one of us didn’t mind hauling the suitcases up and down.

Do Your Homework: Make restaurant reservations early. Scope out the locations ahead of time and see what other travelers have experienced. Reddit has a pretty active Dollywood board that was helpful to orient us before we got to the park. I research sites on Open Table, Resy, Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Google.

Saving Where You Can: We picked up little passports in VA at the Visitor Center along the highway and they saved us $20 off the cost of one admission. We have the National Parks Pass and get in free. Our Dollywood stay included transportation, admission, free timesaver passes, and food vouchers.

Thinking back and comparing this to past vacations, I guess you could say we are Hip Hop Artists. We never stay in one place for too long and instead find plenty to do along the way.

And finally, a little wisdom from my Great-Grandmother Alice. Every time she got ready to leave on a trip, before walking out the door, she would sit down and take a deep breath. If she remembered something she had forgotten, she would take care of it. And then she would sit back down and take another deep breath before getting up to leave. Alice was a calm, sensible woman.

Do you have some travels up ahead? As always, at the end of the road may you find a blessed…

Welcome Home!

Renée